About three days ago, I started wondering what the heck was going on with Infinity Blade: Dungeons, since it looked pretty interesting when I saw it back around E3 last year. Today we got our answer.

In a message posted to Epic's official company blog, Epic founder Tim Sweeney gets right to the point. Epic is closing Impossible Studios, with "ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic" given as the reason for the closure. Epic is, however, allowing the team at Impossible to keep its name and logo, giving them the opportunity to reform under that name, if desired.

As a result of all this, Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now officially on hold.

I'm probably supposed to provide some sort of meaningful commentary here, but I don't really know what to think. I'm just sort of shocked. That's nuts.

About three days ago, I started wondering what the heck was going on with Infinity Blade: Dungeons, since it looked pretty interesting when I saw it back around E3 last year. Today we got our answer.

In a message posted to Epic's official company blog, Epic founder Tim Sweeney gets right to the point. Epic is closing Impossible Studios, with "ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic" given as the reason for the closure. Epic is, however, allowing the team at Impossible to keep its name and logo, giving them the opportunity to reform under that name, if desired.

As a result of all this, Infinity Blade: Dungeons is now officially on hold.

I'm probably supposed to provide some sort of meaningful commentary here, but I don't really know what to think. I'm just sort of shocked. That's nuts.

That must really suck for all those people forced to endure two studio closings in less than a year. I bet some are wondering if the gaming industry is even for them anymore. Could lose some good talent. Wouldn't blame them a bit though. What a shame.

What the hell? Why hire on a bunch of people and open a studio just to shut it down with no product released? What do they mean it wasn't working out for them? The product was bad? The studio was on an inflated budget? Epic is in trouble?

What the hell? Why hire on a bunch of people and open a studio just to shut it down with no product released? What do they mean it wasn't working out for them? The product was bad? The studio was on an inflated budget? Epic is in trouble?

This is just...weird.

or maybe the guys are the problem, seeing how they went through 2 closures already....

Or the more talented big huge people took off to more stable employment before 38 studios had imploded, and the place is less of an asset than anticipated. Although that is the really negative interpretation, and it could just be that the integration side of it is not working due to time zones, etc.

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

What the hell? Why hire on a bunch of people and open a studio just to shut it down with no product released? What do they mean it wasn't working out for them? The product was bad? The studio was on an inflated budget? Epic is in trouble?

This is just...weird.

or maybe the guys are the problem, seeing how they went through 2 closures already....

Yes, I'm sure the sub-studio who was bought specifically to turn the game they were making into a side-story for the incomplete MMO, and ended up being the only part of the company to put out anything with the 38 Studios name on it, were the problem there. Great logic.

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

So what would happen to the Unreal Tournament IP? Maybe another 3rd party will develop it if there's ever another UT game?

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

I don't really understand what the impetus is for Epic to do this, aside from the key people wanting to cash out and retire. They make more money on the engine obviously, but it's not like their games weren't selling, Bulletstorm excepted. There's probably no good answer for this, but why throw everything out the window to focus the company on one part of the product when it doesn't seem like the engine is going to be improved any by the greater focus?

@shatteringlast said:

So what would happen to the Unreal Tournament IP? Maybe another 3rd party will develop it if there's ever another UT game?

I'm guessing it's dead, considering UT3 did not do so well for them. (Though let's be honest, it was a pretty mediocre UT.)

This, big names leaving Epic, and nothing really huge besides the new engine coming from Epic gives me the feeling they are either under hard times or are not giving a single shit about making games anymore and instead just focusing on graphics. Considering how many companies license the engine, I doubt its the former

Keep in mind that Tencent picked up a minority stake in Epic last year, which probably meant that all the big-time stakeholders (meaning the guys that seem to keep leaving the company) got paid. I suspect you're right about that company focusing more on its engine development and licensing business down the road.

So what would happen to the Unreal Tournament IP? Maybe another 3rd party will develop it if there's ever another UT game?

Unreal Tournament would be better in a 3rd party's hands anyways. UT3 was honestly just an engine showcase and it was the first UT game that Digital Extremes wasn't involved with. If Unreal Tournament was given to People Can Fly, I can see amazing things coming from it *edit I take back what I said, Unreal Championship 2 was the first non-DE Unreal game, and it was amazing.

That's insane. As unlikely as it is I hope we find out the impetus behind this decision, bankable developers, bankable engine, bankable franchise, bankable genre then shut down in a snap? What was going on back there?

Apparently the game was delayed into 2013, so it was going to be a 2012 release. Doesn't seem like a lot of time for a studio to build and release a game. I'm guessing they were missing milestones, or at least quality was sub par.. However, it still seems like an unrealistsically short dev cycle.

KoA:Reckoning wasn't all that hot and had numerous core design flaws, it tried to do some grand things, but outside of the fresh and solid melee combat in an action RPG it really had nothing else to offer that wasn't done several times better in other games.

Now combine that with the fact that it's only a part of that team, a team that fractured, it's quite possible that they simply could not pull off what Epic demanded from them, and there really can be a dozen and one reasons for that, unrealistic expectations morale, unfamiliar work conditions, different corporate culture, bad team combo, etc, etc ...

Epic saying "ultimately it wasn't working out for Epic" is the corporate equivalent of saying "it's not you it's me" in a relationship, you don't want to hurt the other party's feelings (in this case you don't want to say bad things about them as they are let go, to hurt their chances of finding further employment as little as possible)

Kinda cynical way to look at it, but it's not surprising in the least, even if it is a bummer.

That is pretty tragic. At least those dudes got payed an extra half year and moreso than they would have otherwise (assuming they couldn't find jobs elsewhere), but this is a crying shame. Not exactly good PR for Epic either to shut down the studio that they "saved".

At least they're allowed to continue their work on their own if they so choose to, but I can't imagine they can scrounge up funding for that.